Geeks-line company is apparently working on an english translation but it won't come out until next year or that's what I've been told. Once it's official, I'll provide more news.

Oh and just to let you know, I am not getting a single euro out of this project, I've been paid to translate some content, but I am not getting anything from sales, so I hope you won't see my post as some kind of bad advertising.

Now I have to get back to work (interview's content) so I can provide the answers you're all waiting for !

London-based Data Discs has announced plans to release Shenmue and Streets of Rage soundtracks to vinyl. Both albums are pressed on 180 gram vinyl and include lithographic prints for each title. Pre-orders will begin on May 30th and offer exclusive editions to those who order early. Each album will come in 3 different editions priced at £19.99.

Shenmue 1 and 2 are both amazing and I have no idea why anyone wants 2 to be more like 1 given they explore completely different themes, ideas, and settings. They're deliberately different. Shenmue 1 is a game about sadness, loss, depression, and being alone. Shenmue II, is how all those emotions can warp and destroy even the nicest kid. Shenmue III, going off of disc 4 of Shenmue II, is going to be about how Ryo can heal as a person and learn to move on past his father's murder.

As for why 1 is different from 2: why not? Who would want to play the same game with the same ideas and themes twice in a row? Both games are perfect compliments to each other.

Here's the thing that Shenmue 1 purists can't fucking understand.

Shenmue 1 takes place in Ryo's hometown. He knows everyone; they know him. He grew up there and it's in the Japanese countryside for the most part, compared to Hong Kong. In Yokosuka, he talks to the people who trim his hair, where he buys his local meat, where the man who lives with him and is practically a brother to him has a crush on the local host girl at a bar. It's deliberately about Ryo's most intimate feelings. More than that, Ryo is like, the top dog in Yokosuka pretty much, and he and Guizhang take on 70 dudes in one giant fight.

Contrast with Hong Kong, a large, massive area of a foreign country where Ryo knows no one and has to start fresh. In Hong Kong, he's fish out of water, and he's just another person. He realizes he's not even that good when it comes to martial arts and there's always someone better than him, or one step ahead of him. Ryo's challenged and pushed and prodded and has to live where he doesn't know a soul as he tries to grow or is pushed into uncomfortable situations that challenge him (airing out books, catching leaves, learning WUDE, going to Kowloon, climbing Ghost Hall building, losing to Dou Niu TWICE).

The fact that Shenmue 1 purists cannot see the deliberate contrast between the two for storytelling purposes is :rotflmao: ](*,) worthy. I personally put and 1 and 2 on par with each other, for they're different games trying to achieve completely different things, but made up as part of a grand franchise. It's kinda of like Star Wars. Sure, you can pick a favorite movie out of the bunch, but what makes Star Wars work is the entire trilogy - the full story.

Ultimately, you must remember that I and II originally were supposed to be one whole game.

that was actually both shocking and funny...me and a friend of mine decided to wake up at 4 am to be able to watch the Sony conference live (I live in Italy), and by the time it began we started texting via what's app. He had never played Shenmue before that day but had a lot of respect and curiosity for the franchise.The Last Guardian, FFVII remake and the game from media molecule made him very happy, and five minutes before Shen3 was announced he was saying: "this conference is the best in years, now they only have to announce Shenmue 3 to obliterate everything else". I was pessimistic and he replied that maybe we were asking too much...Right after this sentence Shenmue theme started playing, and I jumped from my chair before the text appeared, I immediately sent him an audio message that was something like this: <<NOOOOO, I can't believe it... [laugh mixed with tears], I just can't...can't....“.After that I started crying with so much joy, it was something I have never felt before (I have no fear to say that, I'm 23 yo)... When Suzuki was invited on stage I sincerely had a little faint, I was touched by his tears, his humility and the passion he was expressing with the look of his eyes.

The result was a huge amount of adrenaline in my body that later wouldn't have made me sleep at all, and in the next couple of days I couldn't stop crying everytime I watched the reveal trailer and mostly the live reaction videos, and still today I have quite goosebumps.This whole thing touched me really deep for a lot of reasons actually: I went through a very tough time in my life , I was slowly recovering and every day I was happier, and the period of May and June has been a life changing one for me (in a good way). But there was also another thing: I have my Dreamcast and both Shenmue 1 and 2, but the last time I played the first one was in 2002 because then my brother lent the first 2 discs of Shenmue to someone and they never got back (he doesn't even remember the person who took them), and in 2009 I managed to buy the first 2 discs on Ebay at a very cheap price, but I still couldn't replay the game because my Dreamcast was fried and I kept playing Shen2 on my xbox360 once in a while. On May 2015 I felt this strange urge to find a new Dreamcast because I wanted to re-play the first Shenmue so badly...I found a used and cheap console from a private seller and I did a relaxed playthrough of the first 2 games in a row until the very end of June. This is why Shen3 was such a shock for me... after all these years I felt the need to make a gift for myself and repeat this experience that had changed my life the same way I did when I was a kid, and right after that the new game was announced....I can't believe this is just a coincidence, after 14 years...

Was thinking about ideas for PayPal rewards and I tweeted Cedric and Suzuki about contacting John Sweeney to see if they could get some Shenmue art prints from him. If Suzuki signed them I'm sure there are fans (including myself) who would pay 2-3x as much for them, so Sweeney would still get paid and the PayPal would get a decent contribution:

"@CedricBiscay @Shenmue_3 You contacted J. Sweeney about having his print as PayPal reward? Signed by @yu_suzuki_jp? http://bit.ly/1PnbpCd "

To be honest it's not a lock in that I will be contributing anymore to Shenmue 3. As much as I'd love to, I will think about it because I feel I have given the project enough money. Plus I have to save up for the trip to Japan next year.

Christmas is coming up, and I was thinking about maybe taking my family away on holiday as a present, I don't know. Plus there quite a few concerts I would like to go to, a lot of upcoming games I want to buy etc.

It's a safe bet to say I wouldn't be able to afford both the statue and the jacket, but even one of them may not be possible. I will have to wait and see how things play out.

But make no mistake, this is not an "investment", it's a passion. A hobby. I have enjoyed this particular game so much that it's extended beyond the television screen, to a tattoo on my arm, to a facination and love for another country, to media and helping Shenmue as much as I can online, to physical collections of pieces which now make up a sizeable Shenmue collection.

My decisions to do what I do have been calculated and quantified by 14 years of experience and emotion, which is fine because this isn't a business deal. I am not paying for a football player to get a return on him. I am helping someone which has helped me craft the life I live. My money not only is going to help develop a piece of gaming history, but also is leading me to a country I wouldn't have had any love for if it hadnt been for the first game. I will get to meet an idol who hasn't just created the game, but so many games which shaped not just my own, so many childhoods and advanced the industry so much over the past 35 years. If anyone doesn't get that or understand that, that's completely fine. But I do, and what I have given this project I would not change in a heartbeat. There are a lot of elements to any life equation, and in my case with Shenmue 3, all those elements were in the right place to make it work. Was it a lot of money? Yes. Can I afford it? Yes. Should I have done something different with that money? No. Why not? Because I did something in life I felt 100% that this is what I wanted to do. Simple.

I have been doing a Shenmue 3 video discussion series on my youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/lordcanti

I would like to invite you all to see my latest segment.It is regarding the pivot from Shenmue 2 to Shenmue 3.The video quality is a bit off but the format of series allows it to be listened to like a podcast.Enjoy! https://youtu.be/bvJdZ39RyEs

Hello,I do not know what time it is in your country, but here in France, here came the release of my book on Yu Suzuki! Unfortunately I have not yet received the book, and if I could, believe me, I will push the postman on the back for that pedal faster! I promise you some pretty pictures when the book will be in my mailbox...Meanwhile, I took out a beautiful T-shirt SEGA AM2 to mark this day, come see my blog: http://www.gameblog.fr/blogs/platon21/p_115226_le-livre-sur-yu-suzuki-sega-est-disponible-aux-editions-geek Enjoy!

Yesterday I dreamed about Shenmue 3 :rotflmao: :roflmao: It was about that tech demo that Cedric tweeted about.

It started with a snowy place, showing the new weather engine, there were rabbits deers and other animals there, then the camera panned out, a lot of flowers in blossom and petals started to fly around the sky, in a beautiful manner, and suddenly it changed to a beautiful spring with green mountains and hills plenty of life.

A figure appeared from the distance, it was Shenhua, she was walking around the environment, she seemed very happy and plenty of life too, her outfit was different but similar to her traditional one, she was wearing a hat and had longer hair than before ( I know it makes no sense, but I don't have control over my dreams xD)While she was walking she meet Ryo, our Ryo, it was the CG Ryo xD, and then when everything was getting interesting I woke up T_T

In my dream Shenhua's dress was gorgeous, I am not very good at drawing, but I tried to make a sketch of the basics.

http://i.imgur.com/vCYtkZL.jpg

Man I wish I could take a photo out of my Dream that whole thing was gorgeous.

10.6 Million dreamcasts sold worldwide, an estimated 1.2m copies of Shenmue 1 were sold. That's a good conversion rate. The dreamcast was in its coffin by the time Shenmue 2 was released on the dc (late 2001 in Europe, no dc release of s2 in NA) the system was dead and buried. I was a hardcore fan of the series after Shenmue 1 and I can remember only coming across finding a copy of 2 in store by chance, I didn't even know the game was out at the time. There were no advertisements that I could remember.

When Shenmue 2 came out on the Xbox a year later, again, there was very little advertisement of the game and Europeans had no real reason to re-purchase the game if they had already bought it on dreamcast a year earlier. Then you have to take into account that the original Xbox wasn't selling particularly well at the time itself. Another crucial error was the decision to not re-release Shenmue along with Shenmue 2 on the Xbox, I'd assume that this isolated many potential newcomers to the series.

I honestly think that the reason the Shenmue series didn't become mass market was largely down to the games being on consoles that sold poorly at the time. Along with some bad marketing decisions.

Like most people, I stopped getting my hopes up and ignored E3 for years. As much as I hate the website, I sometimes check the Dreamcast boards on GameFAQs. Someone posted a thread about Yu making that twitter post and it really got me thinking. I concluded that if the creator were to mislead us like that, I would consider giving up hope... but part of me felt like he wouldn't do that to us. I was doubtful but my conscious told me to check out the conference.

I had the event streaming live on my TV. At first, I paid attention to it but quickly became hopeless and turned my chair to my computer to play my online game and completely stopped paying attention yet left it running. I don't remember exactly what I said but as soon as I heard the song start, I freaked out and quickly turned back. I said "omg" and "holy shit" plenty of times eventually. I couldn't sit still. I was flipping out so much that I missed most of what was being said... which very quickly made me scared that it was just an announcement for HD remakes (this seemed to happen in a lot of reaction videos). I kept shouting "remake or three?! remaster or sequel?!" or something along those lines. Part of me was almost ready to scream and cry "don't do this to me!!!". After it was confirmed, I couldn't stop my body from trembling, my heart was racing so fast that I was having chest pains, and I was sweating. I felt like screaming at the top of my lungs but I was temporarily in a place where the walls were very thin, so I couldn't.

Like someone else said, despite how overwhelming this was, part of me was offended that one of the best announcements of my life was being forced into public funding... big corporate business backed away for financial fears and acted like this was some homebrew that they didn't want to lose out on. But it wasn't enough to ruin the moment. I donated $500 to kickstarter, couldn't calm my tremors or heart for nearly a hour, and I only slept for 2 hours that night. The next day, I shed a tear or two. Also like others have said, I spent hours and hours watching reaction videos and couldn't believe how much joy they brought me - I've archived many of them. For weeks, I would watch Michaels reaction multiple times per day - it made me so happy to see.

Within the span of a few hours I received two responses from the Kickstarter team regarding having a Shenmue Exhibition. As expected, it would require permission from Sega which would take some time.

Hello Amir,

We at the Kickstarter team are delighted to hear of fans wanting to support Shenmue in this way.

I have taken the liberty to forward your message to the Ys Net team.

We will contact you with their response as soon as we can.

Thank you very much for all your support.

Sincerely,

Oscar & The Shenmue 3 Kickstarter Team

Hello Amir,

We have already gotten a response concerning the Shenmue exhibition.

In order for us to officially support a project like this, and possibly provide you with artwork or other things , we will first need Sega's permission since they own the rights to Shenmue.

We would have to submit your project to Sega for review, and it will most likely take a lot of time until the details with Sega are worked out.

In regards to this we would like to ask you there is already a planned schedule of when the exhibition would take place.

Also if you would have any mock-ups, documents or material that would give us a concrete idea of the exhibition, please forward these to our email ( info@shenmue.link ) so we can present them to Sega for review.

If you have any more questions feel free to contact us through here or through email.

Thanks again for your support.

Best regards,

Oscar & The Shenmue 3 Kickstarter Team

I'm currently writing a piece on Shenmue but once that is done I'll spend the rest of the week coming up with mock-ups and documents for the exhibition. If anyone else wants to help that would be amazing!

For those who do not know, "Young Geek", is the Shenmue Guy from the E3 Shenmue 3 Stream: https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/611287726789255168/b8GjeUKD.jpg

We had a 1 hour discussion about Shenmue.Topics we discussed:- The meaning of Shenmue- Why it is more than just a game- NPC Living dynamics- FREE- My history with the series- Modding- The Shenmue 3 Kickstarter- The Shenmue 3 Paypal campaign- General Gaming

While Sega stopped supporting the Dreamcast with their final release, Karous, for the console in 2007, companies such as Hucast continue to publish games for the Dreamcast to this day, and a dedicated community of indie developers take advantage of the ease of coding for the system as well as it’s lack of software protection to program games for the cult system.

Another! :)

Thanks, looking at that first sentence as well it's too stop-start, changed it to:

While Sega stopped supporting the Dreamcast with their final release for the console in 2007, Karous, companies such as Hucast continue to publish games

Made a few more changes and decided to publish them on Medium, feel free to share!

Part I: Of Dreams and Dreamcasts:https://medium.com/@MoosaviAmir/what-s-shenmue-6145a484bbf1

Part II: The Death of the Dreamcast and Shenmue’s Uncertain Fate:https://medium.com/@MoosaviAmir/what-s-shenmue-7415134fd9c0

Part III: The Brief Lives of Shenmue Online & Shenmue City, the Birth of Ys Net, and the Seeds of an Idea"https://medium.com/@MoosaviAmir/what-s-shenmue-91b3add6dbbd

Well, I am not one to say anything official about the game but I will say that the game is in great hands :mrgreen:

Good things are on the way. We will just have to wait. ;-)

I understand you can't tell us anything since it's not the right time nor the right channel for official news... but still, you are killing me!

"Good things are on the way"... like good good or just good meh? :mrgreen:

I'd say good good ;-)

Cedric loves Shenmue and is doing a lot to make sure Shenmue III will succeed. We can trust him, no worries. Yu Suzuki and his team are also working very hard so I am not worried about what kind of game Shenmue III will be !

Regarding the Magic Monaco, since some of us will attend the event, It'd be nice to gather and record some kind of video, share our thoughts etc. 8)

As promised, I've received Yu Suzuki's approval to publish it, so here it is !

Meeting Yu Suzuki in Japan once again was awesome. I had the opportunity to meet with the development team and saw some footage and can say that Shenmue is definetly in good hands.

This interview do not contain major spoilers, however, DO NOT read the question/answer #14 if you do not wish to know about Shenmue III's bosses.

Enough said, here you go !

English version / 英語版 :

PDF version : coming soon

Yu Suzuki's interview : A New Shenmue (2015)

1) David : Hello Yu Suzuki. Today is September 14th and 2 months have passed since the end of the Kickstarter's campaign. Could you tell us how you've felt during the campaign ?

Yu Suzuki : Many people asked me how it was during E3 so I'd rather talk about what happened after that, the development and so on. That's what is the most interesting to me. The game's budget has been decided with the Kickstarter and we're working on it accordingly. We're currently testing the Unreal Engine 4.

http://s20.postimg.org/3q8adrch9/image.jpg

2) David : 14 years have passed since the release of Shenmue II. If you had to think about it, was there anything that could have been improved in the previous games ?

Yu Suzuki : When I was making Shenmue II, my goal was to make it better than the first one. Of course, there are many things that could have been better. If I had to provide an example, that'd be the use of time. How long you had to wait until the next event.

In Shenmue Yokosuka, the player had no other choice but to wait until the next event occured. The concept was to add many different features for the player to enjoy while waiting for the said rendezvous. After the first Shenmue was done, people provided their feedback and many of them were frustrated having to wait, that's why I've decided to add the « Skip Time » feature in Shenmue II. By using it, you could skip time and jump to the next scene.

3) David : During the trailer of Shenmue Online, we could see Shenhua summoning a Phoenix to fight Lan Di. Is it linked to the original story of Shenmue ?

Yu Suzuki : This is a story I made up specially for Shenmue Online. So no, It has no link to the original story.

http://s20.postimg.org/v4nf1xkvh/image.jpg

I would like to ask you some questions regarding Shenmue III and the Kickstarter campaign if you don't mind.

4) David : You've planned to add scenes from the first 2 games « Story Digest » in Shenmue III to describe the story. Are you going to use the previous games original scenes or do you plan to recreate them under the Unreal Engine 4 ? Is there any chance you're going to add Chapter 2 « the boat » in it ?

Yu Suzuki : The boat chapter won't be added. Regarding the « Story Digest » we're thinking about the best way to add it.

5) David : A fan has made a suggestion and wanted you to hear it. Is it possible for Ryo to hold a camera and take some pictures that the player could save in the inventory ?

Yu Suzuki : Ryo holding a camera doesn't match with his style and the way he is. However, the fact that the «player» himself is taking the pictures sounds like a nice idea. To be honest, I already thought about it before, so if that's possible, I would like to make this possibility happen.

6) David : In your previous interviews, you've mentioned that Shenmue III's size would be around the size of Shenmue's Dobuita. Each village will be around the same size as Dobuita or where you talking about the full game ?

Yu Suzuki : I want to make Choubu as large as Dobuita. Now, about the remaining villages, we're thinking about it.

http://s20.postimg.org/ua0vfwd0t/image.jpg

7) David : Characters will be linked to Ryo through the « Rapport System ». But is it going to change the main story and why not, make some of the characters disappear at some point ?

Yu Suzuki : This system has been built for Ryo and Shenhua. We are thinking about the possibility to make it work with other characters but that's undecided. Regarding the impact that it's going to have on the story and the game itself, that is currently under experimentation.

8 ) David : The exclusive Kickstarter content « S3World telecom» will provide the possibility to call some characters of the previous games. But are the conversations going to be limited to some lines only or will they offer some variations ?

Yu Suzuki : No, It won't be limited to a single conversation.

9) David : The Stretch Goals «AI Battling», «Ragdoll Reaction» and «High Ground Battle System» have yet to be reached, but is there anything we could learn about these Stretch Goals ?

Yu Suzuki : Some of you may know what the Ragdoll physics is. If you release the strength of the body, it becomes like a doll, that's not really natural. That's why we're working on the «Motion Blending», adding some resistance to the muscles for example, to obtain realistic moves.

In a Virtua Fighter scene, patterns were determined by the Motion Capture, but with the Ragdoll physics, moves won't repeat over and over. If you get into something (like a wall) the reaction won't be the same. In fact, I'd like to combine the «Ragdoll Physics», the «Motion Blending» and «IK Constraint» to make the NPC and battle's reactions as real as possible.

Regarding the «AI Battling» Stretch Goal, if I had to explain this simply, that'd be, for example, when you're hitting the punch button of your pad to hit your opponent. A jab when he's close, to hit him when he's away from you and to move to hit him when he's even more far away. I would like to create a system that is taking account of the distance, conditions and the position of your rival. During normal fights, if you push a button, your character will use the same move over and over without considering your current situation. I don't really like that and would like to use the «AI Battling» to add some variations to the movements depending on your current state.

And finally, the «High Ground Battle System», is the interactivity with the surrounding environment. I want to create and add strategy and realism to the battles. For example, throwing your opponent on a barrel and making it break or hitting a wall and making it fall like a wave on your enemy. I'd like to create more complex battles using the UE4's physical phenomenon.

David : These features were not available in the first two games right ?

Yu Suzuki : To say the truth, I've already used it. You could see something like that during the «70 Man Battle». But these techniques were used 14 years ago and I am sure that the result will be more interesting if we use the actual technology.

10) David : Is Shenhua going to be with Ryo all the time or is Ryo going to be on his own from time to time as well ?

Yu Suzuki : Both. Moments where Ryo will be on his own and some where Shenhua will stand by his side.

http://s20.postimg.org/6lldkmgh9/image.jpg

11) David : Just like in Shenmue I and II, is it going to be possibile to grab the items around us and examine them ?

Yu Suzuki : I would like to make it.

12) David : Some people would like to know more about the Paypal campaign and its rewards. Is there anything you can tell us ?

Yu Suzuki : The campaign will start on September 17th. With Kickstarter, people were limited to one reward, but this time, they will be able to add other rewards. Also, I'd like Japanese users to browse this page, all details will be in Japanese. The remaining Stretch Goals are also a part of this campaign and if we reach them, as promised, they will be made. I am counting on you !

13) David : Niao Sun has been presented during the first Shenmue events but is only appearing for the first time in Shenmue III. Why did you show her so soon during the promotion of the game ? Is there a special reason behind this ?

Yu Suzuki : There's no real reason. She was attractive and I liked her, that's why I wanted to show this character to all of you as soon as possible !

http://s20.postimg.org/jr0vqqact/image.jpg

14) David : Looking at the development's schedule, 4 big bosses will be added to the game. Have you decided to cut some parts of the story and add the 4 main Chiyoumen bosses ?

Yu Suzuki : All I can tell you is that you're going to face Niao Sun of course, and also Lan Di !

http://s20.postimg.org/40fsx3r3h/image.jpg

15) David : Many players would like to have the possibility to switch between the Japanese and English voices. Do you plan to add such a feature in Shenmue III ?

Yu Suzuki : We are considering the possibility to switch between English and Japanese voices. So, many people would like Japanese voices and English subtitles ? I will probably start a poll about this to see what people are looking forward to.

Here is the last question !

16) David : Any special message that you'd like to say to the fans and why not, people who never played Shenmue until today ?

Yu Suzuki : My message towards the fans :

Thank to all of you who have been waiting for the last 14 years. I will bring with Shenmue III a new way to play and many things that were not in the first two games. I am aware that many of you are expecting Shenmue III to be the same as the first games but as a game creator, I am always challenging myself and I'd be very happy if the fans appreciated Shenmue III. Thank you for welcoming the new Shenmue !

Now the message toward players who never experienced Shenmue before :

I am developing it in the best possible way to make sure that you are going to enjoy the experience even though you have never played the first Shenmue. So even if you have no idea what the Shenmue I and II were, please do not hesitate to try it out please !

http://s20.postimg.org/ja248r8x9/DSC_0563.jpg

The interview is now over. I would like to say thank you to Yu Suzuki who allowed me to do this interview. A huge thanks to all the people working at YsNet, for their warm welcome and kindness.

I'd also like to say thank you to Cédric Biscay, french co-producer of Shenmue III. I had the opportunity to meet him and I can tell you that he's really motivated and he loves Shenmue as much as we all do ! Shenmue III is in good hands and I am really looking forward to it !

My next interview should happen during the Magic Monaco in February 2016.

I haven't kept up with most of the S3 news lately, so forgive me if this was already confirmed before, but I think the most interesting thing mentioned in the topic post is that Lan Di will indeed be a boss fight in the game. Suzuki describing characters as "cute" or "sexy" is practically a non-issue to me, but confirmation that we'll actually be challenging the main villain of the series this time around? Gold.